She turned around to face me. “Really?”

“Yeah.” I straightened her gold charm. “I realized working at the firm will eventually end up burning me out. I’m making great money now, but I don’t want to do these sixteen-hour days forever—not if we’re gonna have a family someday. I need more flexibility, need to have my nights and weekends back. I need to start planning for that.”

She adjusted my collar. “Well, I can’t complain about the prospect of you having more free time. As of right now, you’re married to your job.”

“I don’t want to be married to my job—I want to be married to you.” I leaned in and kissed her before rubbing her shoulders. “I was actually considering asking Addison to be my partner. What do you think?”

“Wow.” Anna stared off to ponder that. “Actually, I think you guys would be great together—if you don’t kill each other.”

“We may bust each other’s balls, but I trust her. And she’s smart as a whip. She’s probably the only person I could imagine going into business with.”

“I think you’d make a great team.”

I was thrilled and relieved that Anna was on board with this. “Then let’s do it.”

Leaning in to give her another kiss, I heard something that gave me pause.

“Anna’s home!”

Our attention turned to the bird Anna had brought here the other day. He sat in his cage in the corner of the room.

“Did he just say ‘Anna’s home?’” I asked.

Then he did it again.

“Anna’s home!”

She laughed. “I didn’t even realize he knew my name.”

Something occurred to me. “The other day when you walked in after your shopping trip, I looked at him and said, ‘Anna’s home.’ It must have stuck.”

Anna volunteered at a bird sanctuary and for some reason had decided to bring this particular bird home to live with us. Since he was from Australia, she thought it would be funny to name him after the Aussie actor Hugh Jackman. But he didn’t look like a Hugh to me, so we called him Huey for short. I wasn’t too keen on living with this thing, having to clean its cage and whatnot, but she’d insisted. I couldn’t fight it.

We were headed out the door when he did it again.

“Anna’s home!”

She laughed. “That’s going to drive you crazy, isn’t it?”

“Nah. I’ll never get tired of hearing your name, even if it does come out of that annoying little guy.”***A few weeks later, Addison met Anna and me to look at a rental office space for the firm we planned to start. Addison had taken me up on the offer to partner together, and the future was looking bright.

A realtor took us to a space downtown that was small, but perfect for what we had in mind. The price was right, and we couldn’t find one reason not to take it.

The agent clapped her hands together. “What do you say? Shall we head back to my office and draw up the papers?”

Addison and I looked at each other before she nodded, giving me the go ahead to say, “We’ll take it.”

Anna stood on her tippy toes to hug me. “Congratulations! This is so exciting.”

“After we do the paperwork, shall we go celebrate?” Addison asked.

“That sounds like a great idea, but we’ll have to take a rain check. Anna and I have to go to the hospital tonight. Adam’s mother called me today. Apparently, he was readmitted.”

Her excitement faded. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

I let out a deep sigh. “Believe me, so am I.”***Adam looked worse than I’d ever seen him as I wheeled him into the lounge to start a game. We sometimes played in his room, other times out here for a change of scenery. I tried not to ask him too many questions about his health because I didn’t want to alarm him by seeming overly concerned. Based on his gaunt appearance, though, it was obvious enough that he wasn’t doing well.

When Anna excused herself to go to the ladies’ room, Adam shocked me by saying, “Hollis, stop the game for a minute.”

I immediately put down my controller and muted the volume. “What’s up?”

Nothing could have prepared me for what he said next.

“I’m not gonna make it this time.”

My heart dropped to my stomach. I hadn’t been expecting him to confide in me, and certainly not with news like that. As I stared at his pale skin, I tried to comfort him, even if I knew it was in vain.

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. And you know what the sad part is?” He laughed almost maniacally. “I’m still a fucking virgin at nineteen who’s never even had his first kiss! And I’m gonna die that way.”

What could I possibly say to that?

“Are you saying you want me to kiss you?”

God only knows how he managed to smile, but he did.